Friday, May 18, 2012

Greece hands over Olympic flame to England

Also saw on CNN last night, live telecast of the formal handing over of the Olympic flame in Athens to a London delegation led by Princess Anne and including David Beckham at the Panathenaic stadium where the first modern Games were held in 1896.

Source: The Star

The flame will be kept overnight in lanterns at the British embassy in Athens and then flown on the golden-liveried 'Firefly', British Airways Flight 2012, to a navy base in Culdrose near Land's End in south-west England.

The 70-day, 8,000-mile (12,874-km) relay around Britain starts on Saturday and organisers hope it will spark an explosion of enthusiasm for the third Summer Games London has hosted.

"Once that flame starts its route...8,000 torchbearers within 10 miles of 57 million people over 1,000 villages, towns and cities, I think people will recognise that actually there is no turning back now. It's theirs." - Seb Coe, chairman of the London organising committee LOCOG. Check out the London Olympic Torch route.